Food for the Worm is my self-published newsletter + essay series about horror films and what they say about the people who can’t look away. Recipient of the 2023 Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship Fund from the Horror Writers’ Assocation. Find the essays below or subscribe to my Substack to get them right in your inbox.
A DREAM OF STONE LIONS
Bookworm series: The Haunting of Hill House
What haunts a house? A look into Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel and its adaptations, including 2018’s Netflix series Haunting of Hill House, from Mike Flanagan. Part of the BOOKWORM series thanks to the Horror Writers’ Association Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship Fund.
GOD BLESS THE YOUTH OF AMERICA
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Many entries in the slumber-party rotation of horror films from my childhood were of the neo-slasher variety. Becoming a teenager, these horror movies promised, would be thrilling, sexy, and absolutely fucking terrifying.
A REASON TO BELIEVE
SIGNS (2002)
From the relentless beat of daily life, we find staccato arcs of joy, sadness, anger, relief, and ecstasy. For many people, these are signs to keep on. For those who feel forsaken, what is there to give structure to suffering or joy? What use do we have for signs?
LIVING WITH EXPERIENCE
CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962)
“Carnival of Souls asks the question: When given access to the other side, how does one go on with the living?”
ON HALLOWEEN’S DR. LOOMIS
“Our problem is not with vision, it is with responsibility. We know more than we might have ever wanted to know. We are facing something shapeless and all-containing, something masked and yet standing right there in the open, something raised in our own backyard. We are asking: What next?”